Lebogang Rasethaba is a South African filmmaker and advertising director whose work explores storytelling, perspective and questions of cultural identity. African stories occupy a central place in his practice, which brings local voices and perspectives to the forefront through film and visual communication. Rasethaba spent five years in China, where he completed a master’s degree in film studies. The experience shaped his understanding of voice and perspective in storytelling. His work moves between advertising and documentary filmmaking, with credits including People Vs People, The People Vs Patriarchy, The People Vs The Rainbow Nation, Future Sound of Mzansi and Prisoner 46764: The Untold Legacy of Andrew Mlangeni. His work has received numerous accolades, including Creative Circle Ad of the Year, multiple Loeries and an Outstanding Directing Emmy for the Apple TV+ series Home. He is a director and partner at production company Egg Films, and his work has been featured on platforms including Highsnobiety, i-D, Nowness and Vice.
In the Castle of My Skin is a music video by South African filmmaker Lebogang Rasethaba for a track by the British jazz group Sons of Kemet. At its centre are pantsula dancers, a South African dance form transformed by choreographer Jarrel Mathebula into the striking image of an orchestra. Dressed in black suits, the dancers move like musicians in a large ensemble, their precise, rhythmic and sharply articulated movements directed by a conductor. Movement takes on the role of music, while the body becomes part of a collective sonic composition.
The film is built around the contrast between the unruly energy of pantsula and the formal discipline of an orchestra, bringing the two together in a new visual and physical language. Jazz and pantsula emerge from distinct cultural and aesthetic traditions, yet within the film they meet in a space where their meanings can shift and recombine. Shot in Johannesburg, the video is charged with a sense of collective energy, playfulness and joy, while also asking what happens when familiar forms of dance and music are placed in an unexpected context.